New WordPress updates: new interface, and safer.

Do you worry about your WordPress website getting hacked? Let’s talk about doing software upgrades to keep you safe.

WordPress, as you know, is our primary design tool, which allows website owners to blog, edit and change content, and have websites grow as needed. It is wildly popular: some estimates indicate that 20% of the internet is now populated with WordPress websites. You’re in good company!

In recent weeks, the WordPress development team has released two new versions of the core software that makes our websites work, and they are a big deal. The latest version, 3.8, introduces a fresh new look for the Admin dashboard, and makes the Admin usable in all devices. It’s actually pretty slick – I’ve included a preview image here:

However, the previous release, 3.7, includes a very important new feature – background updates.

If you’re an iPhone user, you’ll remember the upgrade that iOS introduced awhile back. Even amidst the trouble people had with this upgrade, one of the important features is the ability for your phone to upgrade apps in the background automatically. What a time saver!

The WordPress background updates provide a similar convenience, but far more important. The newest version of WordPress will automatically apply software and security patches that protect your site against ever-changing malware and viruses. This is huge. Hackers, for no real apparent reason, have become more and more prevalent, and websites are always at risk.

So, get those upgrades in place! But, wait.

You’ll want to have a pro do these upgrades for you. Why? Sometimes plugins and themes that are part of a WordPress install don’t play well with new WordPress software. The developers that build plugins and themes try to keep up, but can’t always. For this reason, it is important to have your web person back up the site, carefully do the updates, and test. Here are some links to more detail: